Decorating Own Sweet Home

Many people enjoy the feeling of wide open spaces, but if you live in one of London's small flats, apartments or houses, chances are you are living in quite close confines. There are many interior design techniques that can be employed to open up your living area and make the most of the available space. I will illustrate some of these here so you are able to maximise the space available to you in your pad in London.

De-clutter
This is a bit of a no-brainer, but, even with good intentions, so many people fail or are reluctant to de-clutter their living spaces. Many people become attached to their belongings and find it hard to part with them.

With e-bay and car-boot sales (you will likely have to travel out of London to participate in a car-boot sale as they are few and far between in the city), there is a market out there for your clutter. You never know, you could raise enough money to pay for the rest of the interior design project.

From experience, de-cluttering leaves you feeling lighter and less stressed.

Use your walls
Again, a very simple idea, but putting up shelves is a great way to maximise your available space. Get those books off the pile in the corner and up on a shelf.

Mirrors
A well placed mirror can do wonders for creating the illusion of space. If large enough, you can give the impression of the room being upto twice as large as it is.

Colour
This is a trick every interior designer knows. The subtle use of colour in the correct spots can do wonders for your London flat. For walls, darker colours such as blacks, dark browns, dark blue, et al are very restricting colours and will make you feel trapped. So the trick to create the illusion of space is to go for the opposite end of the scale. White, beige, yellows and light blues are your best bet.

For floors, you should use rich colours. Lighter colours will however give a greater impression of height, but visually, light colours do not give stable support for legs.

Lighting
Clever use of lighting in your interior design plan can also help achieve the illusion of space. To make your room larger, simply illuminate the ground level corners  of the room. Conversely, if for some reason you would like to make the room feel smaller, you should illuminate the upper corners of the room.

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